According to speakers at the National Union of Teachers’ conference in Liverpool young girls today are coming under unprecedented pressure from what’s described as a “raunch culture”.

Obsessed from a shockingly early age with their figures and how they look, they’ve become the target of big business flogging inappropriate underwear, Playboy accessories and even, God help us, pole-dancing kits.

“Big business,” cried one delegate, “has taken the liberation we fought for and is selling it back to us at huge cost.”

But not just big business…

The likes of underwear for eight-year-olds with the slogan “I’m hot!” and kiddie make-up and pole-dancing paraphernalia “suitable for 6+” and even cosmetic surgery for teenagers would not make business sense if there wasn’t a market for it.

What sort of mother buys this stuff?

Mothers presumably, who themselves have succumbed to the raunch culture. For if we’re being honest we’re probably now second generation in terms of girls who think tarty is empowering (to use a word the girly mags love.) Role models like Katie Price who appeared at a promotional event last week dressed as half woman/half My Little Pony (and not in a good way) have led the charge.

There’s much to admire about Price — a self-made multi-millionaire and working mother. But the message she sends to little girls (and their mothers) with its mix of fluffy pink and flesh-flashing is backward and harmful.

Ultimately it’s mothers who should protect their little girls from growing up too soon — who should be the real bulwark against business cashing in on their child’s childhood.